Can My Foundation Fund Legal Aid

Access to legal services can be essential to addressing your community's needs including domestic abuse, homelessness, and Veterans services. Thinking through the types of legal services, the distinction between civil and criminal legal aid, and how to evaluate these services can be overwhelming.

This webinar offers foundation staff and board members funding strategies for tackling community issues by investing in civil legal services.

Public Welfare Foundation and the American Bar Association will give a brief overview of funding guidelines and perceived obstacles to funding legal services. Your colleagues will then share their decision making process for considering legal services funding. The webinar will conclude with peer discussion.

Moderator: Lara Kalwinski, Policy Associate and Director of National Standards, Council on Foundations

Speakers:

• Mary McClymont, President, Public Welfare Foundation
• Kenneth Goldsmith, Legislative Counsel and Director of State Legislation, American Bar Association
• Shawn Morehead, Senior Program Officer, New York Community Trust
• Bill Lockwood, Program Officer, May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust
• William F. Russo, Office of the General Counsel, US Department of Veterans Affairs
• Antonia Fasanelli, Immediate Past Chair of American Bar Association's Commission on Homelessness and Poverty, Executive Director, Homeless Persons Representation Project

Resources:

• Natural Allies: Philanthropy and Civil Legal Aid - Public Welfare Foundation and The Kresge Foundation
• Grant Makers Need to Help the Poor Fight Legal Injustices - Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Legal Aid Toolkit - U.S. Department of Justice
• Voices for Civil Justice
• Legal Services Corporation
• National Legal Aid and Defender Association
• American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants
• State and Local Bar Associations
• Directory of IOLTA Programs
• Legal Funders in the Bay Area (LSFN) contact lsfn@one-justice.org (website coming soon!)
• Can community foundations fund legal aid for individuals?

To continue this conversation, please visit the Philanthropy Exchange discussion.